Understanding Audience

Primary Research

Participants: 7 | Expert interview: 3 | Pulse Interview 10 | Survey 17

To understand our research space, we spoke to 12 target users and 3 experts, ranging from company HR to asset managers, and conducted 10 pulse interviews and surveys. It was evident that many women would prefer to return to work if childcare costs were more affordable. Additionally, rising childcare costs are only manageable for habitual savers.

Empathy Map

Based on the interviews and surveys, we created an empathy map highlighting the financial and emotional struggles women face. Many women also have difficulty navigating the complex systems of finance, motherhood, and policies.

Through the empathy map, we were able to identify the following:

• Women experience financial guilt for not being able to contribute to their households.
• Many must choose between their careers and growing a family due to expensive childcare costs.
• Government childcare policies are often unhelpful and frequently restricted to lower-income families.

Journey Map

After creating the empathy map, we mapped out the journey of a woman embracing motherhood. It became evident that the most financially draining part of transitioning from a new mother to a working mother is arranging childcare. Along with that a woman often faces  financial guilt during maternity leave, worrying about lost income, career setbacks, and is afraid of being a burden on their families.

Key Insights:

To summarise, the key insights from our secondary and primary research are:

• Childcare benefits are linked to income and seniority.
• Financial stability is crucial for family planning, and many do not have pre-planned funds for children.
• Existing childcare policies mainly benefit lower-income families.
• Many women consider motherhood a major financial milestone.

Our Service eMpower

How does "eMpower" help?

eMpower helps UK working women return to work quicker after maternity leave by easing childcare financial burdens and enabling full-time work by allowing them to save tax-free for childcare.

• Financial Flexibility: Combines long-term pension savings with short-term accessible funds.
• Life Event Support: Eases financial strain during maternity leave, enhancing overall employee welfare.

How does it work?

eMpower allows you to direct a portion of your employer-contributed workplace pension pot into an ISA (Individual Savings Account). Like your pension, this ISA continues to be invested, but with the added flexibility of being accessible whenever you have a child.

This project builds on insights from our previous finance lab initiative, where we discovered that pensions can feel distant and hard to relate to, as they are typically inaccessible until after age 65. Additionally, many people have other investments, recognizing that pensions alone may not be sufficient for their future needs.

Key Strategy:

• Approach: Redirect a portion of employees' pension contributions into an ISA.
• Growth: Funds in the ISA grow through investments.
• Access: Employees can access these funds during approved maternity leave.

Service Validation

Concept Testing Workshop

Women: 8 | Men: 1

After defining the service, we conducted a concept testing workshop with individuals from our target group to explore their saving habits, thoughts on saving for childcare, and awareness of childcare costs in the UK. We found that many participants were unaware of these costs and tended to save for more visible goals like cars and housing. Several women indicated that they would be interested in using the service if their partners were also involved.

Key Insights:

Savings goals are informed by:

• What people already know
• What they are attracted to
• What is tangible

Historically, saving towards any specific phase of life apart from retirement was never in practice.

Concept Testing at RCA Public Event

Positive responses: 11 | Negative: 3

We conducted our service concept testing with a diverse audience at the Royal College of Art Exhibition, engaging with new parents, UK government officials, financial advisors and asset managers. The response was overwhelmingly positive, and we received a lot of constructive feedback, thus helping us understand the feasibility and viability of our service.

Key Insights

• Impact on pensions: A few people were interested in knowing how their pensions would be affected.
• Impact on Government: A major advice we got from people was about working out the economics and showing how it would impact our various stakeholders, mainly the government.
• Why only “Mothers”?: A lot of people also highlighted that this service should also be available to men and not just women. Hence now our service is “Empower. Money meets Parenthood”

Feedback revealed that using numbers to substantiate our service is crucial for credibility, especially regarding costs and benefits to stakeholders.

Response to Feedback

One of the major responses was that this service should not be restricted to women and should be available to men as well. Moving forward, we plan to conduct thorough research on the journey to fatherhood to enhance the service's benefits. This approach significantly expands our target market and benefits the government. Additionally, we calculated the impact on key stakeholders such as pension providers, the government, and employers.